Musings of a Genealogy-Nut

I didn't say "A Treasure" because the "Find" is so frustrating. As I unpacked dozens of boxes and totes of craft items, I found a Whitman Samplers box full of old photos. A few have something written on the back but many have only a date. Many have nothing to identify the photo at all. There are interesting formal portraits and they will be scrapped although I don't know who some of the subjects are. Putting my head together (over the computer connection) with my brother we will be doing some detective work like we did on this one. At first I thought it was from my mother's family, however looking more closely I was able to identify my grandmother and her best friend, my dad's Godmother and, probably, her husband. The location may never be known, though.

Looking at other photos of my mother, the younger granddaughter looks amazingly like my mother. However here, it is the older granddaughter who looks SO like my mother's older sister. We have been wondering where the sharp little chin comes from on Gab...now I see that my aunt had the same chin.

This was an amusing layout to create. I really think I need to do more of them to compare generations.

My mother's paternal grandparents were both German immigrants. They came to America on the same boat at the same sailing, but didn't meet until both had settled in Saginaw, a hub for German Immigrants.

Rheinhold died many years before Johanna and my mother doesn't really remember him. She did tell me stories about the bitterness against Germans during the war. Her grandmother, who lived with them, spoke ONLY German and, with his son in the war, my grandfather would allow NO German to be spoken in his house. My mother said her grandmother didn't speak for the duration of the war. She would, however, listen to the radio (in English) and cry over names of towns she knew and possible relatives and friends in the midst of the war. She had a grandson on one side of the war, and nephews fighting on the German side. How hard it must have been for her.

This is the inside of my grandparents' home in Detroit around the turn of the century. I do mourn the little "tabourette" (table with a fern on it in the bottom photo) that I had, but my children fell on it and broke it. I can identify some of the dishes on the sideboard in the dining room photo. I consider these professional photos to be treasures!

These are some treasured photos of my mother's family. The original photos are all safely tucked away in acid-free envelopes. I use the system from OrganizedPhotos.com. The layouts can be printed in any square size, but the first are usually 8" x 8" for the albums and refills I can occasionally find inexpensively at Big Lots or some dollar stores.

From time-to-time I also print them smaller for little handy gifts for relatives.




Great Grandfather Abraham (Abram) Hodges, my mother's mother's father. I know so little about him but there are some stories in research done by my mother's cousin long ago, and some census statistics. So far I haven't been able to identify his wife in any of the mystery photos I have. I also can't find any statistics about her.



Both of my grandfathers, Anderson and Oehring, were in the Masons, My parents met through youth organizations sponsored by the Masons. I have several Masonic items and only an SURE of the origin of the cufflinks with the O for Oehring on one side. The "coin" was with my grandmother's things so that probably belongs to that side.



THis is a treasured photograph of my mother's whole family. Befor another formal portrait could be taken, the brothers had scattered, college and one to World War I.

My Great-Aunt and my Grandmother traveled to New York State in 1916. Some of the photos seem to have been taken at an army base. I suspect they went to visit my uncle, who was in WWI and might have been stationed there before deployment to Europe. Story has it that my grandmother tried to block my Uncle from lying about his age by a few months to sign up, but that my Grandfather won out and their son joined the Army. He was in Europe for a long time, at least over 2 Christmases, in Holland, France, Germany.